Claude Brinegar, a top executive at Union Oil and a secretary of transportation under President Richard Nixon during Watergate and the energy crisis, has died.

Mr. Brinegar died at a care facility in Palo Alto on March 13 after a long illness, according to his family. He was 82.

Mr. Brinegar was born on the Northern California coast in the small lumber town of Rockport and as a boy moved around Northern California with his parents as they sought work.

Union Oil hired Mr. Brinegar out of Stanford in 1953 and he rose through the ranks to high-level executive positions. But he is best known for his work in the Nixon administration.

At the time of Mr. Brinegar's appointment in 1973, Washington was gripped by Watergate, the nation was facing an energy crisis as Middle East nations restricted oil shipments, and several Northeast railroads were bankrupt.

One of Mr. Brinegar's first tasks in Washington was to devise a plan to restructure Penn Central and several other railroads. The plan resulted in Conrail, which in time became profitable.

In his Cabinet post, Mr. Brinegar encouraged consumers to conserve energy and he conceived of the national 55 mph speed limit to reduce fuel consumption. The speed law was not repealed until 1995.

Mr. Brinegar returned to Union Oil in 1975 and became involved in the creation of the Talledega Speedway in Alabama, said his daughter Claudia Berglund of Huntington Beach.

Ms. Berglund said that the fact that her father was an oil executive but also advocated conservation was indicative of his personality.

"He was different; he was extremely independent," said Ms. Berglund. "He was a thinker and committed to a better future, not the company."

Mr. Brinegar was born on Dec. 16, 1926. His father left the family when he was 3 years old and his mother remarried Butler Brinegar.

After a disjointed education caused by frequent family moves around Northern California, Mr. Brinegar excelled at Stanford.

Somewhere along the way, he took a liking to Mark Twain and later became an expert in Twain lore and history.

He is also survived by three children from his marriage to Elva Jackson in 1950. In addition to Claudia Berglund, his other children are, Meredith Cross of Washington, D.C. and Thomas Brinegar of Cody, Wyoming. He also is survived by four grandchildren.